Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapur has a message to employers that are on the fence about adopting artificial intelligence.
“In today’s world, if you’re not going to change, you’re living in the past,” he said at the Fortune Global Forum conference in New York on Monday. “If you resist it, I’m sure it will come and get you.”
As an optimist about the wider adoption of AI, Kapur points to the rise of other technologies since the turn of the century, including 5G and the cloud, which alongside AI, will become the great “trifecta” when used properly, he says.
“If you’re scared, it’s a doomsday for everybody,” says Kapur, whose company is a multinational manufacturing giant with a major foothold in the aerospace industry.
Kate Johnson, CEO of Lumen Technologies, a global telecommunications and networking company, echoes Kapur’s optimism about AI and says scaling the technology in the office is all about creating an adaptable culture. It’s also important to acknowledge that there is confusion and fear from the top down.
“AI introduces an uncertainty that we’ve never seen before into the workplace and into the global stage,” she says. “You need to be prepared for anything and that’s terrifying.”
While there is a “great uncertain terrain ahead,” Johnson says human adaptation is the key to success.
“More than ever you have to create a culture that embraces change, that is vulnerable, and agile,” she says. “The return really comes when large corporations learn how to change processes and business outcomes.”
It’s also about trying to approach this change in a fundamentally novel way.
“A lot of people are focusing on AI answering the question for them rather than, ‘What can I have this do for and with me,’” Johnson says. “That shift in mindset is probably the number one thing. [The mindset is] ‘I’m going to show up and build an engine to get it right.’”
With adoption of AI comes risk, both Kapur and Johnson say. But it’s worth it if the proper guardrails are put in place, including a robust data privacy plan and the ability to work across teams.
“If you want to have a high return, the risk has to be shared,” Kapur said. “It means co-creation has to be done. We have to take a risk of sharing our capabilities with somebody else.”
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